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Stuffed Steak

A flank steak stuffed with bread, onion, sage, pepper, salt, and butter, roasted with potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stuffed Steak

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut a hole in the flank steak.

  3. In a bowl, mix the bread, onion, sage, pepper, salt, and butter to make the stuffing.

Stuff and roast

  1. Fill the steak with the stuffing and sew it up.

  2. Place the stuffed steak in a pan with the potatoes.

  3. Dust the steak and potatoes with flour, salt, and pepper.

  4. Top the steak with butter and roast until done.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flank steak
Forms the outer wrap around the stuffing and provides the main meat.
Bread
Makes the stuffing bulk and absorbs juices from the steak as it cooks.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the stuffing as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and browns the steak and potatoes on top.
Potatoes
Roast in the pan juices and butter, becoming tender and lightly browned.
Flour
Dusted on the steak and potatoes to help form a browned crust and slightly thicken the pan juices.

The step that matters

Roast until done. The record gives no time or internal temperature, so the cook must judge doneness. Flank steak is lean and turns tough if overcooked, so checking doneness carefully matters.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sage, pepper, butter, potato, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sage, pepper, butter, potato, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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